Create An E-mail Signature

Faster than any medium before it, e-mail has become a standard for communications of all sorts. As the leading reason that most people use the Internet at all, e-mail is now firmly a part of our culture. And in the business world, it is an absolutely indispensable tool.

Most of us fire off dozens or hundreds of e-mails each day, and receive an equivalent number. And yet, a surprisingly few businesses have established a policy for the content of the e-mail signatures that many users include at the bottom of their messages.

E-mail signatures are the few lines of text that follow our name, at the end of all of our e-mail messages. They are unequalled in their ability to get a message in front of those with whom we communicate regularly. Best of all, it costs nothing to slip a message into an e-mail signature.

Here are a few pointers to help make your e-mail signatures more effective lead generation tools:

• Keep ‘em Short – most people do not want to read through lines and lines of additional text, after they have read the content of your message itself. In addition, long e-mails are very discourteous to the visually impaired, and can also create problems for some e-mail clients.
• Include a Positioning Statement – all e-mail signatures should include a concise, to-the-point statement about the purpose of the business.
• Make an Offer – provide some sort of incentive to engage prospects and encourage them to make contact with you. Many organizations include a link to their web site and an offer of some reward or information.
• Use Consistent Signatures – make sure that all employees use the same e-mail signature format. An eclectic collection of e-mail signatures conveys an attitude of disorganization.